❉ Micko Westmoreland announces the first new music from The Bowling Green since 2002.
Wonky is the first single from the ‘lost’ third album by the eclectic, eccentric, electric Micko Westmoreland of Micko & The Mellotronics working under his former moniker of The Bowling Green, the name under which his Mingle EP was released in 1996, finding critical acclaim as NME’s Single of the Week. Several additional Bowling Green EPs surfaced, featuring collaborations with such legendary producers as Luke Vibert, µ-Ziq, T-Power and a John Peel session with Si Begg. The Bowling Green also appeared on several scene-defining compilations for labels such as Rising High/Blue Planet, Law & Auder and Shadow Records. His debut full-length album, One Pound Note, was released in 1998 and subsequently picked up by Trent Reznor’s Nothing Records (Interscope) in the USA, along with Warp artists Squarepusher, Plaid and Autechre. A sophomore album, Fabrications, appeared in 2002 for the Spiky label.
This is the first new music since 2002 and signifies a final chapter; a couple of the tracks made their way on to a small charity label stateside under a different name way back but this is the first time they have been presented digitally.
Wonky works a laidback sonic groove with trippy overlays, a simple Melodica steering the melody around whirling Moogs and electronic banjo. Acoustic guitar plays a minimal hard country line which sit beside tactile Clavinet. Clocking in at 2’30” it steers away from past work, whilst making its mark and point.
Westmoreland on Wonky and the return:
“I’d worked on a number of tracks after the second album but moved on to film scores and documentaries with my film maker brother Wash Westmoreland (Still Alice, Colette) for a while. So these tracks were left unfinished for sometime. I decided to move away from electronica and drop the name ‘Bowling Green’ as that was the general direction of travel. After seeing some striking motion graphics videos a friend Patrick Henry was making at his new company (http://uumph.studio) we both suggested this style would be a good fit for a new video for the old track ‘Wonky’. This was the impetus that started me thinking about getting those tracks together for an entire album. The finished video for the chosen track fitted perfectly for what I was after, the curious and stunning visuals pushed ‘Wonky’ into a completely new place and showed that the music seemed to have stood the test of time remarkably. He wouldn’t accept payment for the vid, saying that I’d put him up for 7 weeks in the late ‘90s when he was between places.”
Wonky represents the first single for the November release of the seven-track digital album named Self-Titled. On the album name Westmoreland says. “The project is very meta, self referential if you like, as it’s about airing work largely from another time. The name seemed to fit as describing that process, so it went from there.”
PRE-SAVE LINK FOR APPLE MUSIC, SPOTIFY AND DEEZER
https://lnk.to/Wonky_TBG
❉ ‘Wonky’ by The Bowling Green is released 25th August through Landline Records/Republic of Music on all good digital platforms via www.landlinerecords.com.
❉ News source: The Bowling Green. Image credit: Photo – Jonathan Evans. Video graphics – Patrick Henry/uumph studio
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